GSA Increases Per Diem Travel Rates for 2018

Traveling for work soon? Thanks to rising travel costs, the General Services Administration added $2 to the per diem rate for lodging in 2018.

Up from $91 in 2017, the daily travel allowance for lodging will be $93 in 2018, plus $51 for meals and incidental expenses. According to GSA, these rates apply to travel in approximately 2,600 counties around the nation.

In 2018, there will be 332 “non-standard areas” that warrant a higher adjusted per diem to account for regional prices, reports Federal News Radio.

GSA bases its per diem rates based on average daily rate (ADR) statistics from the lodging industry. Because of this, it can be inferred that the projected cost of meals and incidental expenses for FY2018 stayed at the FY2017 standard range of $51 to $74.

“The ADR is a widely accepted lodging-industry measure based upon a property’s room rental revenue divided by the number of rooms rented as reported by the hotel property to the contractor,” according to information from GSA. “This calculation provides GSA with the average rate in a given area.”